Moldova will have presidential elections on Monday. President Vladimir Voronin seeks re-election from the country’s parliament. The parliament will choose between Voronin and academic Gheorghii Duca for president.
If no winner is elected, parliament will be disbanded:
The Communists got 56 out of 101 seats in parliament at the election. Sixty-one deputies should vote for a candidate to elect president. Thus, the Communist Party has to seek support of the opposition bloc Democratic Moldova that gained 34 mandates and the Christian Democratic People’s Party that has 11 mandates. Under the law, the parliament will be disbanded if it fails to elect president in three rounds of voting.
Authorities on Friday had agreed to allow a protest in front of the parliament building but had changed their mind by early Monday.
The Opposition has given the Voronin government a list of demands:
This main opposition force has presented a list consisting of 22 conditions on which it is ready to support Vladimir Voronin in the presidential elections. Among them Moldova’s withdrawal from the CIS, the outlawing of the Russian peace-keepers in the Trans-Dniester Region and their replacement by the UN, NATO or EU forces, the renunciation of the principle of neutrality and the proclamation of the course to integration in the European and North-Atlantic structures, and a number of other demands, many of which have an openly anti-Russian character.
But, the Authorities scoffed at the demands:
People from President Voronin’s entourage at first refused to comment on these demands of the opposition. But then an official from the presidential administration called these conditions a provocation and said that nobody would examine them.
A momentous day in this former Soviet Republic!
Update: The ‘Great One’, Instapundit, has a link to this news.
Update 2: (9:45 AM) Voronin has been re-elected.
Incumbent Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin was re-elected for a new term by the national parliament.
He received 75 votes in the 78-member parliament even though he needed only 61 votes for his election.
His competitor was the president of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences, George Duca.
Both are from the Communist Party because there were no nominees from the opposition, but law requires at least two candidates.
Now,.. we’ll have to wait and see how the public reacts.
